Activities Association releases classifications for schools across state

Trey Harding and Dale Schenk weren’t surprised to learn their schools will face different competition during the Arkansas Activities Association 2022-24 classification cycle.

Jonesboro, where Harding serves as athletic director, will move into the state’s largest classification for all sports. The Hurricane will play 7A football and will be 6A in other sports starting in the 2022-23 academic year.

Greene County Tech, where Schenk is athletic director, will bump up to Class 6A in football and out of the 5A-East conference. Other GCT sports teams will continue to compete in Class 5A.

The AAA released 2022-24 enrollment numbers and classifications for its public school members last week, but conference assignments will not be determined until private schools are worked into the mix. Each non-public AAA member will be assigned after a four-year review of the competitive equity factor after each sport’s season in 2021-22.

Forrest City remains in Class 5A for football and in the 5A-East conference while all other Mustang sports will compete at the Class 4A level as they have done the past two seasons.

Palestine-Wheatley stays in Class 3A for football but drops down to Class 2A for the remainder of the school sports.

Harding was not surprised to see Jonesboro move into a classification with the state’s largest schools. JHS nearly wound up in 7A football and 6A in other sports in the current cycle, remaining in 6A football and 5A for other sports for 2020-22 when the AAA accepted an appeal from Little Rock Southwest.

Jonesboro will face some schools with far larger enrollments in its new classification, which features the state’s 16 largest schools.

Each of the top seven schools have 2,100 students or more, according to AAA figures. Jonesboro’s enrollment for reclassification purposes is roughly 1,374.

With just 16 teams, the 6A football classification looks to be one of the most even classes as far as enrollment numbers are concerned.

Jonesboro’s football team already plays a couple of its probable future conference opponents in Cabot and Conway. Little Rock Catholic, which will play 7A football for at least one more season, is also on the Hurricane’s schedule.

Most Jonesboro teams already play opponents from the top classification in non-conference play, mostly because similar-sized schools in the area are already on the Hurricane’s conference slate. The Hurricane hopes to keep West Memphis, a longstanding rival, and Marion on Jonesboro’s schedules as non-league foes.

The Hurricane will not have a conference opponent within 100 miles in the state’s largest classification.

GCT, the second-largest school in Northeast Arkansas, is set to move up to 6A football along with Jacksonville and Greenbrier.

Schenk doesn’t see the Eagles’ move into 6A football as temporary.

“Greene County Tech is growing. A lot of kids want to come to school here, a lot of people want to send their kids to Greene County Tech,” Schenk said. “Our student population is growing and unless something changes, I don’t see us going back down to 5A, unless some of the bigger schools split into a third or fourth high school that would still be bigger than us, like the Springdale and Rogers and Bentonville school districts. I don’t know that there will be many schools below us that grow to be bigger than what we are.”

GCT is the 13th-largest school among those set for 6A football in 2022 and the 29th largest among all schools in enrollment.

The Eagles will have other company in moving up from 5A football, which has had a private school as state champion in each of the last seven seasons.

“I know it will affect Pulaski Academy and I’ve been told it’s going to affect Little Rock Christian Academy out of Class 5A, and both of those schools will play 6A football,” Schenk said. “There will be 18 teams in Class 6A football. How those conferences will be broken up, I don’t know.”

Schenk said GCT will embrace the move to 6A football, though disappointed the school will no longer be in the same league as rival Paragould on the gridiron. He hopes the Eagles and Rams can continue to meet as nonconference foes.

Valley View, which has been playing 5A football, will return to 5A in other sports after dropping down to 4A for a few cycles. The Blazers enjoyed a banner school year in 2020-21 with six team state titles and four runner-up finishes.

Pocahontas narrowly missed moving up to 5A football for the upcoming cycle, edged out in enrollment by Southside Batesville.